(rshsdepot) Hornell, NY

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

This story is a bit dated (March 7) but I thought it might still be of
interest to some of you.

Link:
http://www.infoblvd.net/june/eriedep.jpg  (lithograph of station in 1939)
http://www.infoblvd.net/june/depot.htm  (photo 2000)
http://gelwood.railfan.net/bldg/erie-hornell-sta.jpg  (postcard view)

Hornell depot restoration takes time, and it's all in the details

By ROBERT J. ROBERTS - CANISTEO VALLEY EDITOR

HORNELL - As Mike Quinlan sweats the details in bringing the abandoned Erie
Railroad depot back to life, he hears from the pessimists.
Foreman Quinlan and his crew of Krog Corp. carpenters and masons have been
swarming over the depot for the past six weeks, as part of a limited,
emergency repair effort to save the depot from even more damage this winter.
Some people, however, think it's too late.
A few motorists drive by the work scene off Loder Street and shout "A waste
of time" or "It's a waste of money," according to Quinlan.
But don't count Quinlan among the doubters. "It's going to be a beautiful
building when it's done," he says.
Jim Griffin, executive director of the Hornell Industrial Development
Agency, says he has heard different comments than those hurled at the depot
workers. What Griffin hears are compliments that the work done so far -
mainly consisting of a new roof and overhang - has improved the look of the
historic structure.
"People are saying how it is starting shape up," says Griffin.
As the community debates whether the depot is worth saving, the project
moves ahead. Once the emergency repairs on the facade are completed by Krog,
work will be bid out to convert the interior into office space for Alstom
Transportation, Inc.
A small section is earmarked as a visitors' center - for which there have
been considerable proposals from residents. That may be premature, according
to Griffin.
"That's a small building," he says. "It's only 30 feet wide. It looks bigger
because of the overhang, but we've pretty well committed it to office space
for Alstom. That was the driving force behind getting (federal and state)
money."
The people who think the depot can't be salvaged are fooled by its
construction, Quinlan says. There actually are three layers to the facade of
the 19th-century depot; what people have seen crumbling, he says, are the
two outer layers. The foundation of the building remains rock-solid.
But complying to the stringent restoration guidelines of the state Office of
Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation is not easy.
Lining the belly of the overhang on the Loder Street side of the depot is
what is known as bead board. When the depot was built 120 years ago,
construction workers were not particular about uniformity; three different
widths of bead board were used, Quinlan says. Now, in 2002, Krog workers
have to exactly match those inexact widths.
And then there are the rafter tails, the decorative items found at the end
of trusses that support the overhang. They all were broken, and had to be
replaced with exact replicas. They had to be made of 3-inch-thick pine, "a
very hard-to-find material," Quinlan says. A thickness of 2 3/4 inches for
the rafter tails would have been easier, but not historically accurate.
Little work is being done now inside the depot; that will take place during
the second, non-emergency phase.
For more than 100 years, the depot handled large volumes of passenger and
freight traffic. Legend has it that pie a la mode was born in the restaurant
in the Hornell depot. Now those rooms are empty, gutted, many stained by
water infiltration in recent years from the leaking roof.
Until the Krog crew arrived in mid-January, people hadn't worked in the
depot since Conrail pulled out its last 10 dispatchers in March 1990.
The greatest amount of damage is the exterior of the depot's west side,
across the tracks from the Railroad Centre shopping plaza. Its overhang long
gone, this side was most exposed to the winds, rain, snow and ice.
It is there that much of the outer facade has crumbled into piles of bricks,
and where another part of the facade swells out in a bow, and where whole
sections of new brickwork has to be laid and subsequently "tied in" to the
foundation of the depot, Quinlan says.
This masonry work has to be done in a heated environment - not an easy task
when sub-freezing winds are turned arctic by steady gusts of wind. Krog
carpenters constructed a heated shelter surrounding this new masonry, to
protect it from the cold as it sets.
Dansville native Peter Krog gets high marks from Griffin for the emergency
restoration. "In hindsight, we probably should have gotten him involved
sooner," says Griffin.

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #339
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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org